G and C
by 27dayz
Summary: What is the first letter of your soul mate’s name? Find out by taking this easy quiz.


**AN:** Enjoy a new CSI fic that's kind of based on an experience I had (although that experience didn't turn out nearly as happily as I would have liked). Hope that you like it.

**Disclaimer:** Let's get one thing straight: I do not own CSI and if I did, I would never admit it because that would mean taking credit for the hour-long mess that currently occupies a slot on Thursday Primetime TV.

**G and C**

Summary: What is the first letter of your soul mate's name? Find out by taking this easy quiz.

"Miss Jordan, why did Cynthia Hamel visit you last Thursday?" Catherine Willows asked politely, carefully masking the annoyance on her face.

"Oh, that!" Loretta Jordan exclaimed loudly. Catherine cringed, but fortunately Loretta didn't seem to notice as she continued in the same high-pitched voice, "Well, Thia was like totally hung up on this guy…Jake…at least I think that was his name…it could have been Jack…oh or was it Joey…no, no, I think it is Jake-"

"It's Jake. Continue, Miss Jordan?" Catherine hissed, prodding the perky brunette along.

"Oh right! Anyways, Thia was feeling really down so she came over for like a girls night…you know, sappy movies, pedicures, manicures…and I felt so sorry for her, so I thought of something to make her feel better. There's like this quiz on the internet that totally tells you the first letter of your soul mate's name and it's like totally accurate. It said that my soul mate's name starts with a B and I just started dating my Brian and it's totally great. Anyways, Thia took it and just started bawling when hers came up as an M. She was so totally upset that Jake wasn't her soul mate that she just took off. She kept saying that it couldn't be true, but that test is totally accurate," Loretta explained.

"Totally accurate," Catherine repeated, inwardly cringing as she pieced together the puzzle. Cynthia Hamel, clearly upset by a silly computer test, drives over to Jake Logan's apartment and, upon finding out from Jake's roommate, Max, that Jake was on a date with another girl, Cynthia bursts into tears and bursts inside the apartment. Max, confused and stunned by Cynthia's behaviour, tries to console her and get her to leave, but she was inconsolable, and being emotional, she begins yelling and slapping Max, who in defence began struggling with her. As they fought, they both crashed into a window and fell to their deaths.

Snapping out of it, Catherine turned to look at the young brunette and shook her head, "I wouldn't put too much stock into that internet test, Miss Jordan. Your friend did, and now she and Max James are dead," she warned.

"Max?" Loretta questioned, "M? Well, at least Thia found her soul mate before she died."

Catherine simply turned and walked away, showing a Herculean effort to resist knocking Loretta Jordan's air-filled head against a wall.

It was sometime later that Catherine was sitting in front of her computer screen, absentmindedly opening and closing emails as she thought of the senseless tragedy that had been her case. Two young people had died because of a silly overreaction to a silly internet quiz. Curiosity finally made her open up the internet and search the web for the 'totally accurate quiz' that was responsible for two deaths.

"'What is the first letter of your soul mate's name? Find out by taking this easy quiz!'" Catherine read, shaking her head as she clicked the link to take it, "This should be a laugh."

After supplying her first initial, the first letter of her last name, her favourite colour, her lucky number, her favourite sport, her least favourite animal, her pant size, her opinion on global warming, and her beliefs on fate and religion, she clicked submit.

Utterly ridiculous, Catherine thought as she waited for the screen to load, to think Cynthia Hamel and Loretta Jordan actually believed this nonsense. What did global warming have to do with your soul mate anyways? She snorted, vaguely wondering if air-headed Loretta Jordan actually knew what global warming was.

She shook her head as she waited and despite herself, she felt her mind wandering over the possibilities. With her luck, her soul mate was her abusive, cheating ex-husband. Please don't be E, she silently prayed. She went over the other possibilities. C? Chris, her cheating slime ball of an ex-boyfriend? Yuk, no way, that was nearly as bad as Eddie. A? Adam Novak? She hoped not.

She shook away thought of her dating past and focused on the initials of the men she worked with. D? David Hodges or David Phillips. Neither. C? Conrad Ecklie. She shuddered and definitely hoped her soul mate's name didn't start with a C. N? Nicky. Boy, that'd be weird, she thought, Nicky's more like a beloved son or brother or something. R? Ray. As much as she liked her new colleague, she couldn't see it. J? Jim. She had known the gruff Jim Brass for years, but she wouldn't go as far as to call him her soul mate. W? Warrick. A lump formed in her throat as she thought of her fallen friend. If she saw a W, she would cry. G? Greggo. Catherine smirked and shook her head. There was no way that zany little Greg was her soul mate. Then again, there was another possible G…

No, Gil Grissom was not her soul mate. Best friend, yes, but he was definitely not her soul mate. If he was hers, he would not have run off into the sunset with Sara. He would have stayed in Las Vegas with her, like she wished he would have. Catherine cringed at the errant thought. She pushed it to the back of her mind. Gil had made his choices and she had made hers. They would never be more than just friends, no matter how much she wanted otherwise. That was just the way it was.

Catherine shook her head, "It's just a stupid internet quiz. No need to get worked up about the damn thing. Heck, this thing will probably tell you your soul mate's name starts with the letter X," she muttered, chiding herself as she looked towards the screen for the answer to the quiz.

She froze in shock.

G.

After a moment when she recovered, she spoke in a hushed whisper, "How in the hell…"

G.

There was no denying it. There was only one man with the initial G that she would ever want as her soul mate. Scratch that, there was only one man PERIOD that she would ever want as her soul mate. And he was the only man she couldn't have.

She leaned back in her chair as thoughts of Gil crept into her mind. Her quiet, resourceful, enigmatic scientist. The yin to her yang. She nearly choked as she remembered him saying those exact words to her all those years ago. He always had her back and she always had his. Where he treaded with caution, she charged right in. Where he clammed up, she kept talking. He was her opposite, her compliment. He completed her. That was evident enough in the way she had always gone to him for comfort, protection…love. She knew him better than she knew herself.

She scowled and buried her head in her hands as she silently cursed the gods and the makers of this stupid quiz for making her think of the man she had tried so hard not to think about.

"Er…Is this a bad time, Catherine?" a timid, soft voice asked from the doorway. Catherine's head snapped to attention and her cerulean eyes widened as she stared at the man in her doorway. His beard and hair were neatly trimmed, beautifully framing his angular face. His was dressed in nearly all black. She had always loved the way he looked when he wore black. There was a nervous smile on his face as he watched her appraise him.

"G-Gil," she stammered, locking her eyes with his sparkling blue ones.

"Hey, Cath," he greeted, stepping into the office.

"W-what are you doing here?" she asked breathlessly as she rounded the desk and surprised both her herself and him when she gave him a quick hug.

"I don't really know…" Gil said as she released him, "I couldn't think of anywhere else I'd want to go."

She chuckled, "You never could stay away from this place, could you?" she teased. He laughed with her.

"I don't think it's the place that brought me back," he admitted once they quieted down.

"Then what was it?" Catherine asked, smiling up at him. She couldn't help but notice how he averted his eyes and shifted nervously. In an attempt to calm him, she placed a hand on his arm. He slowly covered her hand with his other hand as he answered.

"I missed you," he whispered, "A lot."

"I missed you too, Gil," she whispered back, "More than I probably should have."

"I missed you more," Gil said, smirking. She snorted.

"I doubt that," she replied, "I missed you so much that I was tempted to paint Greg in latex and stick a straw up his nose," she joked.

"I missed you so much that I named my new tarantula after you," he countered.

"I missed your quotes."

"I missed your tush."

"I missed you making me laugh."

"I missed your laugh."

"I'm still finding it hard to believe that I'm not going to find you sitting in your office," she said.

"I couldn't wrap my head around not seeing you every day," he admitted.

"I miss you so much that I can hear your voice at every crime scene," she said, not to be out-done.

"I missed you so much that I hopped on a plane to see you," he told her. She shook her head and laughed.

"Alright. You win, Gil," she conceded, smiling up at her friend, "So you're back because you missed me?" she asked. He blushed as he nodded.

"I know that it hardly makes sense, but…well…"

"When has anything ever made sense for us?" Catherine asked, finishing his sentence.

"Exactly," he beamed at her, making her feel like she owned the world, "Can I take you out for coffee?" he asked, a tinge of hope lacing his voice.

"Just let me shut off my computer," she requested, moving behind her desk, only to find the window with a single letter staring back at her. G. She halted her movements and smiled wryly at the computer screen.

"Something wrong, Cath?" he asked her, observing the change.

"I'm great, Gil," she responded, her finger already pressing the power button. She moved around the desk and intuitively linked her arm with his.

"You're not going to tell me what that was about?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as he and Catherine comfortably walked out of the lab. She smirked at him.

"Gil, what's your opinion on soul mates?" she asked, looking up into his blue eyes, her own eyes twinkling with amusement.

"Your soul mate is your better half, the one who possesses the soul that was split from your own so long ago, the one we're all supposed to be searching for to make us complete," he replied. Catherine smiled at the warmth in his voice. Despite his status as an analytical scientist, he was a true romantic.

"How do we know when we've found that?" she asked. He slowed their pace as he looked down at her, seeming to be contemplating something. She felt her heart quicken as he looked at her.

"Hindsight," he replied simply.

"Hindsight?" she repeated confusedly, hoping for elaboration. He granted her desire.

"Do you know the saying, 'you don't know what you have until it's gone'?" he asked, waiting for her nod before he continued, "You see, I think that all of us have already found our soul mates, but we just don't realize it until we take them for granted."

"So you think that you find your soul mate only after you've screwed things up with them? How very hopeful of you, Gil," she commented, her eyebrow raised. He chuckled.

"Do you get more satisfaction from solving a 60 piece puzzle or a 600 piece puzzle?" he asked. She rolled her eyes, but she understood.

"The harder the struggle, the greater the reward," she translated, thinking that the idea was a very Grissom-like way of thinking. He nodded.

"Yeah. And these past few months, I've been struggling a lot," he admitted.

"Tell," she requested.

"I got to thinking about all of the chances I've missed over the years and I got to wondering if I was taking the easy way out…if I was settling for an incomplete life just because it seemed easier," he admitted.

"Incomplete?" she questioned.

"When I was away, something was missing and I was torn between finding the missing piece or just ignoring the hole in the puzzle," he explained carefully, returning to the puzzle analogy, "It was like when I was here, I had the missing piece in my hands, but I was unable to rotate it just right so that it would fit. Then when I was away, it was as if I had dropped the piece on the floor and couldn't find it," he said, watching her reaction. Understanding dawned almost instantly and she stopped walking, effectively stopping him.

"So what made you come looking for the missing piece?" she asked.

"The…uh…research team was fooling around on a computer and there was an internet quiz about soul mates and they…well…they offered to find out the first letter of my soul mate's name…" he trailed off, flushing nervously. His nervousness suddenly gave her confidence.

"I took the same quiz," she said brazenly, "My soul mate has a G in his name," she told him. He swallowed.

"Are you sure it's not Greg?" he asked weakly, a small, almost pleased looking smile on his face. She smirked up at him.

"You have more G's in your name," she told him. His small smile grew and she felt his hands on her waist. She raised hers to rest on his neck and stepped up on her tiptoes to plant a chaste kiss on his lips. She pulled away and looked up at him, a question in her eyes.

"It was a C," he answered, leaning down to kiss her again.

Unknown to Gil Grissom and Catherine Willows, in the AV lab, Greg Sanders, Nick Stokes, and Archie Johnson were stationed at the computer.

"So what are you guys doing?" Nick asked, leaning back in his chair. Greg grinned.

"Well, since my quiz got over three million hits, Archie here is helping me create a sequel," Greg answered, "'Find Your Soul Mate 2: Find the first letter of your soul mate's LAST name'."

"Oh, for Pete's sake, Greg!" Nick moaned.

"Don't worry, Nick. I'm sure that when you take this new quiz, you'll get ANOTHER 'S'," he said in an angelic voice that completely clashed with the devilish grin on his face.

The End

AN: Don't you just love Greg Sanders? Please review, even if this seems totally out of character! Thanks!


End file.
